Dutch filmmaker Nouchka van Brakel rides against the Dutch Sex Wave with the compelling period piece THE COOL LAKES OF DEATH, on Blu-ray from Cult Epics.

In 1869, sheltered young Hedwig Marga de Fontayne (Renée Soutendijk, THE FOURTH MAN), or Hetty, has her idyllic life shattered when she falls ill with typhoid and discovers upon recovery that her mother died while caring for her. Unable to cope, her father leaves her in the care of a stern governess (AMSTERDAMNED's bag lady Lettie Oosthoek) and a fire-and-brimstone-spouting teacher (Siem Vroom, THE LIFT) who try to beat and scare her imaginative nature out of her – her governess informs her father that English literature such as "Alice in Wonderland" is "indecent" and informs Hetty after a spanking that now she will never be able to bear children – but she forms a secret friendship with orphan boy Johan (Erik van 't Wout, A BRIDGE TOO FAR). Hetty is unable to see that Johan's feelings have grown beyond friendly affection when she tells him that she plans to wed lawyer Gerard (Adriaan Olree). With the honeymoon over, Hetty slips into a depression because she fears she cannot have children; however, she is ignorant of the nature of sexual intercourse because her husband has his own sexual dysfunction. When Johan commits suicide after calling her a whore and scandalizing her by featuring her image in an exhibit of erotic drawings depicting her as the sphinx, a lonely Hetty nearly commits suicide but is stopped by her husband. Sent away to the seaside to recuperate, Hetty runs into her brother's famous concert pianist friend Ritsaart (Derek de Lint, STEALING HEAVEN) and succumbs to his seduction. Hetty and Ritsaart flee to England to live as husband and wife but he starts to feel the burden of her affections which take a toll on his career. When Ritsaart abandons her and she miscarries her child, Hetty winds up in Paris where she spirals into depression, madness, prostitution, and drug addiction with only THE COOL LAKES OF DEATH offering the potential of liberation.

Based on the turn-of-the-century psychological novel by Frederik van Eeden, THE COOL LAKES OF DEATH was documentary filmmaker-turned-director Nouchka van Brakel's third feature film. As with THE DEBUT and A WOMAN LIKE EVA (which featured Soutendijk in a supporting role), the film is concerned with the sexual liberation of a woman within social and cultural constraints. In the case of this film, the constraints are those of the nineteenth century upwardly-aspiring middle class, with Hetty ignorant of her own sexual development, called a sinner by her teachers, a whore by a man she has unknowingly spurned, seen as "high-principled" and then a "middle class hussy" by her husband, and has notions of the duplicitous female projected upon her by morphine-addicted artist Joop (Peter Faber, MYSTERIES) who figuratively accuses of her "murdering" fellow artist Johan (while also accurately warning Ritsaart of the danger of Hetty's "sacred illusions" about love and marriage). Brakel's preoccupation with the BARRY LYNDON-esque period setting and look of the film – as captured by Theo van de Sande (VOLCANO) – at first seems to rob the film and its characterization of the gritty immediacy of her earlier films; however, as with those film, she refuses to flatly vilify the male characters who think Hetty a "simpleton" but whose own seeming greater worldliness makes them just as ignorant to how affected they are by her (including a doctor who treats her body but inadvertently gets her hooked on morphine when he tries to address her emotional pain). Counseled during her withdrawal by a sympathetic nun (PEACE OVER THE FIELDS' Claire Wauthion, who also appears in flashbacks as Hetty's mother), Hetty's "death of her lower half" seems to be the shedding of her former existence – she is surprisingly unfazed when she is shunned by former childhood friend turned wife and mother Leonora (Kristine de Both) – rather than a direct rejection of sexual desire. As socially-concerned as her contemporaries in the Dutch Sex Wave like Paul Verhoeven (TURKISH DELIGHT), Wim Verstappen (BLUE MOVIE), and Pim de la Parra (OBSESSION), van Brakel is never gratuitous when it comes to the film's sexual content, focusing primarily on Hetty's reactions, lingering only on Soutendijk's bare body in those moments when her character's notions of sacred love and sexual pleasure merge. The supporting cast also features an early role by future Dutch star Huub Stapel (THE LIFT).

Although A WOMAN LIKE EVE was the Dutch entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards and played at international gay and lesbian film festivals, THE COOL LAKES OF DEATH seems not to have played widely (even though a theatrical trailer with an English title card was prepared). The film was only released on DVD in the Netherlands in a barebones anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen transfer. While the original negatives for THE DEBUT and A WOMAN LIKE EVE are lost, that does not appear to have been the case with THE COOL LAKES OF DEATH which has been mastered from a 4K scan of the original 35mm camera negative. The 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 widescreen transfer bring out textures in the locations, costumes, hair, and facial features but a degree of softness is inherent in the photography due not only to the BARRY LYNDON-esque lighting but also the stylistic choices of eighties cinematographers (particularly when it comes to period pieces). The soundtrack is offered in uncompressed DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and lossless LPCM 2.0 tracks, and the mono mix is free of any obvious flaws when it comes to the Dutch, French, and English dialogue or the synthesizer score. Optional English subtitles translate the Dutch and French dialogue.